The dynamic forces caused by sports activities, dance, or other activities may vary significantly, but there are important common features. In many sport activities, the ground contact of the feet is temporarily interrupted, resulting in rhythmical impact forces. Additional forces such as bouncing a ball on the floor also creates a rhythmical impact force. Many dance activities are characterized by the fact that there is continuous ground contact resulting in smaller forces that are comparable with those of brisk walking though some dances may create greater forces more like those of a sporting event. Two problems are caused by these and other impact forces on a flooring surface. First, the repeated impact by the user on a hard floor can cause discomfort or eventual injury. It is desirable to absorb the loads placed on the floor while maintaining the essential characteristics of the flooring surface (e.g., ball-bounce, the ability to jump and otherwise move quickly, etc.). Second, vibrations caused by the rhythmical impact forces negatively affect the performance of the flooring system, can create unwanted acoustical effects, and can also negatively affect the construction of the flooring system itself requiring unnecessary maintenance and/or replacement. It is therefore desirable to have a flooring system that optimizes vibrational damping while also absorbing loads all the while maintaining flooring system performance.